As soon as Wayne John Pay saw the bone, his heart began to race.

It was the most spectacular fossil that he or it for that matter the entire world had

ever seen, an ancient human skull.

Little did Pay know that this prized skull would soon become the heart to perhaps the greatest

mystery in all of science.

The year was 1929.

Pay was excavating a limestone cave 30 miles southwest of Beijing.

The area had long been famous for fossils, with bones just sticking out of the cliff

sites.

Locals called the area Dragon Bone Hill.

Scientists like Pay classified the bones a bit differently, as hyenas and stags, as

rhinoceros and beavers and saber-toothcats.

And most spectacular of all, as ancient humans.

That first skull was cracked and was embedded in sand and rock and was discolored with

dirt after half a million years underground.

But to pay, it was nevertheless beautiful.

And along with other human bones from the cave, it would soon become famous as Peking

Man.

The first ancient humans ever discovered in mainland Asia.

So where are these world-historic fossils today?

We have no idea.

That part of China was soon overrun with war.

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